April 27, 2006
Triumph may lose bid to build US$160 million plant in Illinois
Triumph foods, a pork-processing company based in the US state of Missouri, is having second thoughts about its plans to locate a plant in the Quad-Cities in Illinois due to fierce opposition.
The mayor of East Moline, one of the four cities in the area, said Wednesday (Apr 27) that his city is delaying its push for a new incentives plan. A hearing on its enterprise zone plan, which would have provided financial incentives for the company to site its plant in East Moline, was cancelled.
The company's board of directors is already re-evaluating the East Moline site and considering other potential locations.
If approved, the plant would have brought the area 1,000 jobs. The company has a new US$150 million pork processing facility in Missouri.
Opponents say they are prepared to go to court, if necessary, to prevent the opening of the plant.
Strong opposition remains in surrounding cities even though East Moline's mayor John Thodos said Triumph has no intention of building any large hog confinement operations that would produce livestock for the plant.
Triumph's six major owner-groups are hog producers with 342,000 sows and the ability to bring 6.8 million hogs to market a year. The owners, all with Midwest operations, are made up of more than 30 Midwest pork producers
Unlike Swift or some other pork processors, Triumph does not have its own meat brand.
While Triumph is new at meat processing, its owners are veteran hog-raisers.
Last year, Triumph reached an agreement with a British company to use its customised genetics programme. The agreement gave Triumph the ability to produce high-quality pork with consistent traits for leanness, texture, color and intramuscular fat.
Triumph's more than US$300 million investment includes about US$140 million for the St. Joseph operation and another US$135 million to US$160 million for East Moline.
The pork industry has mostly aging processing plants that will have to be closed or replaced over time. Triumph's Missouri plant is the newest in the industry.
A second plant was always in Triumph's plan because the owners have excess production capacity.
Triumph planned to sell processed pork from East Moline to Japan and other emerging pork markets, according to a company spokesman.